Tag Archives: san marcos high

SAN MARCOS — Chris Orlando and his son, Ryan, are at a crossroads that few father-and-son duos face together.Call it ‘term limits’ — figuratively and literally. Chris Orlando is a San Marcos City Councilman in the final year of his last four-year term of office. Ryan Orlando, 18, is a standout basketball player at San Marcos High School, playing his final high school basketball season. Both are plotting their next steps. For Chris Orlando, the next step could be a run — for mayor, that is. For Ryan Orlando, it could be a walk — as in “walk-on,” the term for a nonscholarship member of a collegiate basketball team.But both of them are enjoying going through the transition together.“It’s really interesting, as I am considering my next step and watching him do that, the realization that we’re both figuring out what the next chapter is, is kind of cool,” Chris Orlando said. “My son has a strict ‘no pep talk’ policy, so we keep the pep talks to a minimum, but it is neat we are at a new chapter at the same time. It’s been good.”The Orlandos’ respective political and athletic journeys have virtually paralleled each other. The elder was elected in 2006, around the time that the younger first picked up a basketball.

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San Marcos Unified is moving forward with an exciting district-wide project to install solar panels at many of our school sites. Tesla (formerly SolarCity) will install, maintain, and operate their solar panel system without any upfront costs to the District. Savings from this initiative will amount to approximately $30 million dollars over our 20-year contract with Tesla.

Each phase of construction is completed in stages of prep work, fencing, drilling, completing the underground electrical, and installation. Starting with Paloma Elementary on October 14, 2017, the prep team will begin working on site. Once the prep work is completed at Paloma, they will move on to the next school in Phase 1, while the drilling team will begin work at Paloma – and so on and so forth. This process will continue until all of the schools in Phase 1 are completed. For visuals on this process, click here.

In addition to working with the Division of State Architects (DSA) to ensure that all applicable rules/regulations are followed, our Facilities and Maintenance team have worked closely with each of our principals to determine the ideal location for the panels. As many of our sites will have solar panels installed in their parking lot, parking will be affected during the 6-12 week construction period. Families will receive a letter from their site prior to any work commencing. You can also check your school’s website for more information on construction dates and parking/drop off adjustments.

For questions or concerns regarding this project, please email solar@smusd.org.

San Marcos High School Drama Department -Theatre production June 16th. The show is a culmination of five comedic, original ten-minute stories. A great, free entertainment opportunity for families. *Note Corrected time is 6:00 PM

Preview: Vista Panthers vs. San Marcos Knights Posted: By Ashley Washburn Week 13 of The Prep Pigskin Report showcases you a quarterfinal Division 1 match-up between #12 seed Vista High School (4-7) and #4 seed San Marcos High School (6-4).

T

he Vista Panthers have a lot of momentum on their side this week after coming off a huge upset last Friday night against Ramona High School. The Red and Black stunned the #5 seed in a 23-11 victory, cutting the Bulldogs season earlier than expected.

San Marcos on the other hand had an extra week of preparation for this game, due to receiving the #4 seed and scoring a bye during the first round of playoffs. The Knights took this extra week of practice to get the rest of their team healthy and ready for playoffs.

As a mother of three children, all attending the three most impacted schools in the San Marcos Unified School District, I would like to ask how you would help alleviate the impacted schools and align the city’s growth plan with the school districts size. I was a parent representative on the 2013 attendance boundary committee for San Elijo Elementary. As a member of the committee, I saw the need of alleviating the impacted schools of Discovery, San Elijo Elementary, and San Elijo Middle was critical. The boundaries were realigned in an attempt to best address the impacted schools and a recommendation was made in favor of creating a K-8 school. This recommendation did not address the even larger concern, where do all of the elementary and middle school students attend for high school if those multiple schools are at capacity? How do you feed twelve elementary schools with average student populations of 1,000 into four middle schools, and ultimately into two high school? What happens when more development occurs? I posed the question then to the committee of what was the capacity of both Mission Hills High School and San Marcos High school. I was told 2800 and 3200 respectively after additional buildings and portables added. Surely, creating one K-8 school does not fully address the underlying problem of rapid city development and growth resulting in a larger student population impacting all school grades. My children attend San Elijo Elementary, San Elijo Middle, and San Marcos High each school has the largest student population of their respective grade level school populations. San Elijo Elementary has 1,100 students in attendance, granted this has decreased significantly by the opening of Double Peak for the 2016-2017 school year. San Elijo Middle has a student population of over 1,900 and is the largest middle school in the district, whose attendance area includes Carlsbad and San Marcos. San Marcos High school has a student population of 3,200 which is at capacity according to the 2012-2013 attendance boundary committee projection. What happens with the influx of future students that will come with the completed development of the former quarry area, the college, and creek side development. Where will those students from elementary through high school attend? The San Marcos Unified School district does NOT own any land for future school development. This was an issue in the acquiring land and developing Double Peak K -8. San Marcos High school is at its projected capacity and Mission Hills has a student population of 2600 of the 2800 capacity. In addition to the development in San Elijo Hills/Discovery/CSUSM area there has been the addition of multi unit family homes along Norhdal, Mission Rd, and Twin Oaks north of the 78. Those areas are just in City of San Marcos. The San Marcos Unified School District is comprised of portions of Carlsbad, Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, and Unicorporated County areas. That means five seperate areas within the district have their own city growth design, development, and approval process. I understand all those cities and unicorporated areas within the district boundary pay taxes to the school district. How do you align reasonable and responsible school growth size when another city or San Marcos itself approves 20, 100, 400 homes for development?

What will your role be in creating a responsible balance between city growth and development as well as maintain an excellent school district and not create overcrowed underfunded schools?

Sincerely,
Alexis Barbuto
Voter and Mother of 3 students in San Marcos Unified School District

*** Editors Note-We welcome letters to the editor and political statements from San Marcos Candidates -San Elijo Life

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Dear Candidates,

I am responding to your inquiry with regards to the piece I wrote and was posted on San Elijo Life Facebook. As stated within my letter, I am interested in how you will be able to align the City Council and the School District to provide balanced development and adequate schools for the growing student population in San Marcos. This seems to be a difficult task when all of the North County School Districts are comprised of multiple cities and unincorporated areas that are not solely within the city itself as implied by the name of the school district. Another example beyond San Marcos Unified’s composition, residents in Carlsbad could live in an area in that city where their children attend either Encinitas Union/San Dieguito Unified for middle and high school, Carlsbad Unified or Oceanside Unified. How will north county cities which are all under rapid development create smart growth to support their school districts, when the school districts themselves were drawn including multiple cities? How can one city tell another to stop developing homes because it will affect another’s school district? Can San Marcos City Council really demand Carlsbad or Escondido to not approve more housing developments because the San Marcos Unified School District does not have land to build another school or currently the schools are overcrowded? The problem is multifaceted the school district boundaries drawn years ago, included multiple municipalities under one educational district roof.

Cities, NOT school districts approve and design development plans.

In addition to the fact the district itself does not own real estate for future development. The city approves plans without looking into whether or not the school district can support more students in certain areas. Where would a new middle school or high school be developed in the high population density and development areas that drastically need another campus to alleviate the problem? Those areas don’t have land to purchase and build another school or are slated for more homes and businesses. The district is then forced to find a parcel to purchase large enough to sustain a school and traffic needs, but must maintain that school. Will the San Marcos City Council rezone areas or transfer city owned land to the school district to accommodate land acquisition? What happens when a campus needs to be built within another city in the district to meet the demands of a growing student population such as Escondido or Carlsbad? How will the San Marcos Unified School District be able to support not only purchasing land, developing a school, and maintaining another school both infrastructure costs and administration when the San Marcos City council or any other municipality in the district approves more home development? This isn’t just a build more schools to match the development problem. How can a district support these schools caused by the excessive development

approved solely by the cities that reside in the district? Where will the San Marcos Unified School District obtain revenue to support the educational demands due to the increased student population? Do we just pay more taxes to stop gap the imbalance and shortsighted rapid development without looking into sustainable growth and support for our district? This is obviously a big picture problem that affects the overall quality of life in San Marcos and needs to be addressed.

What will your role be to align two very separate structured government entities for smart growth and educational excellence? Where will the balance be sustained so that development approval supports the schools to enhance the city? What rules and regulations will you seek to reform to support this vision?

Sincerely,
Alexis Barbuto
Voter and Mother of 3 students in the San Marcos Unified School District

Emily Clifford of San Elijo Hills was crowned Miss Teenage California 2016. She was awarded a $10,000 scholarship for the school of her choice. She won an additional $1000 for winning the Most Photogenic Award.

The Pageant was held this past weekend at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Orange County. Emily is a freshman at San Marcos High School. She is a member of her Varsity Cheerleading Team. Emily’s Parents are Chad & Michele Clifford who have lived in San Elijo Hills since 2006.

Where: San Marcos High School Theater – 1615 San Marcos Blvd, San Marcos, CA 92078

SMUSD invites you to participate in our upcoming Town Hall Forum. Union Tribune Reporter, Logan Jenkins will serve as the moderator and facilitate the discussion. The forum will include a presentation summarizing the impact of the PACE Promise since 2009 followed by a panel discussion including:

Mayor Jim Desmond

Superintendent Dr. Kevin Holt

Vice Chair Rick Gittings

Board Member Randy Walton

Current PACE Scholar, Alex Contreras

As the conversation ensues, we invite the audience to participate and freely share thoughts that will add to the dialogue. Your participation in this event is instrumental to forming a strong strategic plan that reflects the needs of our community.

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Since 2006 San Elijo Life ™ provides community news, photos, videos, and a directory of resources for residents of San Elijo Hills. The site is independent from the developer and the homeowner’s association.